NDP – what could have been

To the tremendous disappointment of those of us who are biased to breaking news and having something to write about,the New Democratic Party — despite teasing us with their brand new blue and orange coloured website, their importation of US Democratic strategists, and promised debate on party identity — failed to change their party’s name on the weekend. To be honest, probably best for them that they didn’t get around to voting on a new name. The worst possible time to change your political brand identity would be the day before an election. Changing the party’s name is also not a wise move with a potential fall election and an uphill climb as fourth party trying to re-introduce itself to the electorate. Best time to rebrand: the day after you win a majority government.

But what might have been? You know Brad Lavigne and Anne McGrath were sitting on top of a party rebranding campaign ready to be unleashed at the word “go” by the party delegates. However, any investment in putting the “new” into the New Democrats (or whatever the new name) would have to be shelved until next time.

Would the NDP be well-served to rebrand as the “Democratic Party”? Or would have another name worked out better for them?

Here are a few suggestions for names for the next time the party thinks of rebranding:

The Jack Pack – “cause it’s all about Jack”

The New Emo-crats – “the only thing we’d ever cut is ourselves”

The Obama Hope and Change and Hopechange Party – “we’re all in on this one”

The Liberalist Party of Canada – “making coalition governments that much easier”

The Orange-cha glad I didn’t say nationalize Party – “* we still might”

The Not-in-Kansas Anymore Party – “rainbows and windmills and weed, oh my!”

Everything for Everyone Party – “not to be confused with the ‘Everything to Everyone’ Liberal Party of Canada”

The Farm Team – “if you work really hard, someday you too can be a Liberal cabinet minister.”

The Local Party – “we’ve run cities and on occasion we’ve run provinces. But, for God’s sake, don’t let us near the army”

The not-conservative Party – “because with that Ignatieff guy, you really can’t be sure”

Comments

Nah, you're still weak. You express yourself through rudeness, juvenile dialogue, and silliness. I have lots of opinions but you have ignored all of them except the ones which fit into your sock puppet little niche. Terry, you are sounding more and more like a 12 year-old girl whose best friend just stole her boyfriend.

east of eden

BTW – you neglected to actually answer the question which I put to you. Weak, little Terry, very weak.

Jen

Remember during the apology to to the Natives? and do you remember when an aboriginal woman who spoke directly to the PM thanking him for acknowledging the seriousness of the '” ABORIGINAL WOMEN RIGHTS -Matrimonal grants. This same problem the aboriginal women faced every day is the very same problem the so call 'champion for women rights' parties in the HOC refused to vote on.

If only we can find that tape, to show canadians.

terry1

I come on here to learn why reformatorts are considered nut bars and I get answers every day. They all confirm what I hear and see elsewhere. Are you happy now?

I never avoid confrontation nor good debate and you avoid both. You must be a ball room dancer

Jen

Are you talking about HARPO MARXS- he apparently is dead? You should get out more often; Fresh air might awaken you that this 2009 not the 1930's.

terry1

brucey, there's a couple of pictures of harpo the “military man” on /warren kinsella's site that he thinks are manna from heaven for his “library”. I love the one with harpo sitting on the edge of the plane with a couple hugging in the background………UNREAL!!!

terry1

Jen, glad you just figured out who Steverino Harpo reminds me of!!!!!

We all know he's been a joke as PM

Bruce

Wow, talk about projection and lying, you take the cake.

Benoit Corbiel is going rat on his fellow Liberals, too bad, so sad.

Parnella

E of E, this thread is over. It was supposed to be about the NDP but as usual, the Toxic Troll took it off the rails with the usual juvenile screed. He hasn't caught on to the fact no one is impressed with his nonsense here. He should be Iggy's water boy, be of some use to the party he's trying to defend here.

terry1

brucey baby, Let the truth come out; I beleive in transparency, unlike your party who spouts off about it than does the opposite. Access to information under this administration has dropped to a dribble but won't stay hiddeen when the libn are back in power. You see, paybacks are hell in life.

I don't lie, don't pretend to lie and don't hide stuff……………I'M NOT A REFORMATORT.

terry1

parnellipi, I always know when its over for you. and that's when your nonsense shows through and the level of discourse gets beyond your comprehension.

BYE BYE

Jen

It appears one faction of the LPC , the Chretien/Rae gang perhaps, that may include their chief Bunker Boy, are about to let Iggy self destruct.

The sooner IGNATIEFF is out of the liberal party the sooner he would realize he did the right thing. Stay far away from the most corrupt party in canadian history. And stay away from the liberals damaged MSM. They are not worth it.

Bruce

Back to the topic at hand;

No Damn Point

terry1

Jen,More jealousy and nut bar stuff from the reformatort gang. For your information Warren kinsella is Iggy's chief architect of the upcoming campaign and he was Chretien's boy and is close to Rae's brother a real rainmaker for the party. There are others from the old Martin camp and even some from the Dion days involved. You can't stand to see the party united because it spells doom for your half breeds.

terry1

East of Eden……….more of your reading just the big print in the headlines and not the whole story. The real economists in the Country are saying that in reality it's bad news because it shows Canadians are not spending enough to grow the economy. Merchants are not able to raise their prices and make a decent profit which will ultimately cause more bankruptcies and more unemployment. Negative inflation is almost worse than hyperinflation in the real world. I know you can't see that logic.

progressives starting to split from the bible thumpers? Sounds good to me.

east of eden

And the whole world breathed a sigh of relief – Ter-Ber is not a reformatort. Thank God for that.

east of eden

He is just like our friend Gayle who, a year or so ago, said she was retiring from our blogs but then, a very short while later, graciously came out of retirement and has been with us ever since. Trolls are addicted to our blogs – they just cannot get enough of us. They say that they can't stand us but they come back time and again. They're obsessed with us.

terry1

The whole world will really breath a sigh of relief when harpo and his gang of incompetents are gone. Then E of E can go back to his cave.

terry1

sorry to disappoint but my meaning was that parnelippi said sayonara to this thread and I was wishing him bon voyage.

I can get enough of you in five seconds but I get a lot of joy out of twisting your tail, getting you nicely worked up into a lather, which I seem very capable of doing. So, continue to enjoy my writings here.

Parnella

Somehow I doubt the NDP has the answer to the language fixation in Quebec.

A Bloc MP from Gatineau, across the River from Parliament Hill, Richard Nadeau is hot under the collar accusing Via Rail of not announcing evacuation instructions in French when there was a fire in the engine last Sunday night about thirty minutes from Ottawa. This is debatable, according to some passengers they did make announcements in French but with all the commotion it was hard to hear. Anything to stir up friction is the name of the game for the Bloc, it's their raison d'etre.

Parnella

Your favourite troll is into wishful thinking or denial saying Adscam is long gone. Who knows who else will get hauled to the forefront over the biggest political scandal in our history?

Quebec cannot be counted on by any party, they play them all like fiddles to get whatever they want. They can turn on a dime.

The Bloc is being used as part of their game to extract as much as possible from the ROC. In no way should the Bloc be considered a federal entity, they are a regional rump sitting in our HOC .

east of eden

Could always be Oprah's production company – Harpo Productions. Other than that, I have no idea why Ter-Ber keeps on talking about this Harpo person.

east of eden

You have this obsessions with things male – like “tails” and other parts of the male body. Get help, little Ter-Ber.

east of eden

I don't know of any Harpo. I think he must be your imaginary friend.

terry1

I would also like to know who this Ter-Ber is. don't see him/her posting here. Is this another imaginary friend or is that who told you that very low inflation was a good thing for Tories.

terry1

You live in fantasy land getting more and more delusional every day.

east of eden

And I heard a staunch Liberal today call Ignatieff an imposter and a phony for his failure to ever do what's right for Canada. And his wife kicked in and said that she had already bought her Conservative membership card.

And that's about as true as Ter-Ber's lie, above.

Parnella

Time we stop feeding the Troll, it keeps it coming back and only leads to a huge pile of excrement. The honey wagon should have been called in long ago.

east of eden

Man, you got that right – on all fronts. No more feeding and that hopefully will lead to less excrement from the smelly troll.

Jen

a staunch Liberal today call Ignatieff an imposter and a phony for his failure to ever do what's right for Canada.

EoE, “to ever do what's right for Canada.” like what? I don't think for one moment that the liberals have a clue 'what's right for Canada. He meant, what's right for the LIBERALS.

Supporting terrorist groups; criminals, adscam, corruption, using the media as garbage disposals-that ain't right for canada.

east of eden

Amen to that.

terry1

Ex of Exlax…..is this the guy you meant? I think you screwed it up again as you did in your economic statement. http://www2.macleans.ca/2009/08/20/seeing-red/“The Conservative party and its leader are permanently angry,” he goes on. “That’s an ingrained part of who they are and what they represent. On a visceral level, they remain a protest party and have turned themselves into a protest government. They manage by negatives and are genetically incapable of inspiring hope or thinking big. They attack, assassinate character, tell lies, lower the bar on public discourse, and engage in tactical and divisive wedge politics and governance. The tone, strategy, and culture for this government are established by Harper, a cheap-shot artist and cynic of the highest order.”

terry1

In response to that I suggest you read the G&M article on harpo's new push for a majority government. Here's a G&M sampling of the peoples mood on that subject.

“8/20/2009 6:54:12 AM Let me see if I follow the reasoning here: the Conservatives are asking for a majority government because Canadians are tired of the squabbling and politicking of the minority Conservative government?

This is a bit like the schoolyard bully asking for automatic withdrawals from your checking account to prevent your from being harassed every day on the playground.http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/to…The reason minority governments are not working in Canada is because the Conservatives are not interested in trying to make minority governments work. Agree 459

Against 40

Omanator

East of Eden. The only thing that bothers me is that he is wasting so much of our time on this blog. I was talking yesterday to one of the Politicos in town and we were talking about this Troll. He advised that the best way to deal with this is totally ignore him. Answer to the comments of all the others. When the troll gets no more response from us maybe he will fall asleep. All he wants to do is get us angry.

Omanator

Jonathan, that name fits more to the LPC. The Troll is your best example.

terry1

I haven't seen a further response to your brilliant remark about very low inflation being good for the economy and the reformatorts. I called you on that and all that came back was another insult showing your complete lack of knowledge on the subject.

I don't dodge anything except stupidity and you dish out lots of that.

8/21/2009 1:01:54 AM Stephen Harper is a complete loser ….. a child living in a world of good guys versus bad guys, cowboys and indians ….. black and white ….. no grey, no complexity …. no compromise.

Harper has an extraordinarily simple mind. One that clings to narrow ideology like a confused, insecure child holding his security blanket to his chest for dear life. He is a complete embarrassment to our great nation. His brief tenure as our Prime Minister represents a lost period in our history. In the near future …. we will look back at the Harper years and we will ask ourselves …. ' What were we thinking ' .

Understanding the complexity of foreign policy is simply beyond Stephen Harper's grasp and abilities. This fact has become painfully clear. Harper is out of his league ….. and he is making a fool of us internationally. Much of our finely honed international credibility has been squandered in an amazingly short period of time by Stephen Harper.

Canada is not Stephen Harper …. and Stephen Harper is certainly not us.

38 agree

10 disagree…………………………………………………. or this comment:8/21/2009 7:41:02 AM The phrase “These people got into politics largely due to a right-wing belief system but lack the majority to implement it.” perfectly sums up the Harper Government. Hopefully we will never have to witness the inescapable national threat that will ensue if these people ever attain a majority!!

27 agree 12 disagree>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

The people are speaking out about this very poor excuse of a government headed by an introverted ideologue. TIME FOR A CHANGE.

east of eden

I read that in my MacLean's last week. You know, I find it amusing that one, and now two, former Conservative supporters/members became disgruntled because they didn't get what they wanted and suddenly the whole party is hostile. Sorry, Venier sounds like sour grapes…just like that other former Conservative who didn't get his way and reacted in a very un-classy and undignified manner.

And, now, you missed my sarcasm in that particular comment. Your story about the staunch Conservative smelled, sounded, looked and felt like a lie so I made one up just like you did.

terry1

You couldn't drift sarcasm if you tried and as for a liar if you are a remformatory you are one. It comes with the breed it seems.

As for the defections progressive thinkers in Canada don't want to be associated with Harpo and his gang of incompetents. Watch how the party purges all vestiges of Harpo after he's gone by year end.

Jen

EoE, Can you imagine if canadians had other NATIONAL MEDIA besides the LIBERAL as it is in the United States. I don't think for one minute the LPOC would beable to seek refuge every two minutes. So, when the diehard lefty media here says nothing about the liberals' corruption , the other media will have plenty to say. How about that.

Parnella

E of E, you fed the Troll and got another dose for the honey wagon. Tsk, tsk!

batb

Way too many of these threads are hijacked by terry1, and for the life of me, I don't know why people respond to him/her.

Dissing the PM and Tories is what s/he lives for and for the attention s/he gets. Kate's antidote to trolls is the right one: Starve them! Don't answer them! Ignore them!

'You want to see terry1 stop commenting on this site (I know I do)? Don't feed him/her.

Bruce

him/her? More like “it”.

Jen

Barb, I agree with you, let's get on with business which the media is having a difficult time doing. Do you know that had it not been for the NATIONAL POST and one or two caring newspapers, I would never know what is taking place in Canada. To show how lame and sad and manipulative the NATIONAL MEDIA is. The PM is up North doing what should have done years ago. Instead, the 'breaking news the national media reports is ” who Archie from the comic strip, is going to marry Betty or Veronica?.” I guess many of the NATIONAL reporters are getting ready to attend Archie's wedding. some of the reporters are getting their tucks and/or dresses ready for the grand fiesta. You never know, TABER OR FIFE might interview ARCHIE.

Really BARB, the NATIONAL MEDIA is a total disgrace. It is unfortunate that canadians do not other type of NATIONAL MEDIA besides liberal. The americans do, and look, Obama is having a tough time.